My Baby, My Darling.

The next day, I found myself apartment hunting with Annie and Nicole. Annie had been pestering me for the longest time about needing to move out of Dexter’s apartment and live on her own, without a big brother constantly breathing down her shoulders about her living habits. And now that she had a job at the record store for quite some time, she finally had enough money to go apartment hunting in her choice of district in the city. I brought Nicole along because I needed her to become better acquainted with Annie, considering those were the two girls I spent most of my time with.

I guess both of them could be considered my closest friends, but in different ways. Nicole was the friend that I had known for years, despite the fact that we were largely different. She was the more outgoing, bubbly type that loved to be the center of attention. There was no doubt in my mind that she was the more feminine one of the two of us. I mean, the girl’s favorite color was orange for god’s sake. I guess we’d maintained our friendship for so long because we’d been through so much together and knew each other inside and out. Nicole has known almost everything about me ever since the seventh grade. Annie, on the other hand, was fairly new, but so much like me it wasn’t even funny. She had a personality that was so similar to my own. We had the same music taste and a similar, sarcastic sense of humor. Ever since I started dating her brother, we’d been spending more and more time together, especially when the three of us would hang out at Dexter’s apartment, mostly because Annie lived there as well. But, as I got to know Annie more, I realized how well we got along as compared to most girls I knew. But then again, my opinion could be largely biased.

“Holy hell.” Nicole muttered, shivering as we walked into a Greek restaurant across the street from the last apartment we looked at. “Who told mother nature she could summon this fucking hail storm?”

“Quit whining.” I rolled my eyes, following Annie toward a table on the far end of the restaurant, the smell of food already enveloping my senses. “It’s just a little rain.”

After about three hours of apartment hunting in the city, we all agreed that we were starving. To add onto that, it was now pouring rain outside and the weather was quickly turning into a full-out hail storm with thunder. So far, we’ve looked at mostly run-down apartments within Annie’s price range and a few decent apartments slightly out of her price range. The last apartment we looked at looked like it was the size of my bedroom, with the temporary partition. It was infinitesimal, to say the least. The only good thing about that apartment was that it had a nice looking, Gourmet Greek restaurant that had a huge billboard sign advertising their ‘World Famous Gyros.”

“Yeah, a little mother nature piss never hurt anyone.” Annie smirked, plopping down onto her chair and pulling herself towards the table as she fancily placed her napkin onto her lap.

Nicole smiled, shaking her head as she pulled her drenched rain coat off of her shoulders. “That would make a kick-ass band name, you know?”

“Piss?” Annie furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t know, it sounds a lot like KISS; could be a little confusing.”

“I think she meant Mother Nature Piss, Annie.” I mumbled, taking a sip of my water cup as the waitress placed three glasses onto our table.

Annie nodded, widening her eyes and letting out an ‘O’ with her mouth. “That makes more sense…”

“That’s actually a terrible band name, now that I think about it.” Nicole scrunched up her nose, looking down at her menu.

“Add that to the list of band names we won’t use if we form a girl group.” Annie mumbled, grabbing her menu off the table with a serious face.

I furrowed my eyebrows, fighting a smile as I stared at the both of them. I could never have a normal conversation with them around. Even weather talk, the most normal conversation, turned into band names of our future girl group. And apparently, I was the only one to find that funny because both girls held straight faces as they scanned their menus.

After we placed our orders, Annie went on to tell Nicole about the logistics of her job at the record store and how Travis has been on her case about her lack of efficiency when alphabetizing the CD’s. Nicole was telling Annie a story about her first job at the local Burger King when my phone vibrated from beside my water glass on the table. I bit my lip, looking at the screen and realizing it was Dexter calling me. When I picked up Annie that morning, he promised me that he would call during his lunch break. He liked to do that, call me during his spare time. Normally, I would find that annoying coming from any of my past boyfriends. I would usually either ignore their calls or tell them I was too busy to talk, even though I wasn’t. It always bothered me that they would turn the conversation into some lovey-dovey crap. But phone calls with Dexter were different. He would tell me stories about patients he encountered in the hospital, which usually sent me into hysterics, or he would tell me about some new Indian restaurant he wants us to try for the next time we go out. Sometimes, he would even recite to me the aerodynamics of skydiving. That was the thing about Dexter, he always called me with a purpose or a story to tell me. He wouldn’t linger on the phone just to tell me how much he loved my eyes or have a discussion about who loved the other more.

I accepted the call and brought the phone up to my ear. “Hey, lunch already? It’s only-“

“There was this guy that came in today,” Dexter spoke quickly, an amused tone in his voice, “he spoke no English right? I detected a little bit of Swedish, but I couldn’t be sure. I only skimmed that section of my European language dictionary that Annie bought me for Christmas two years ago as a practical joke. But, anyways, he came into the emergency room dressed from head to toe in a British Revolutionary War outfit. And it reminded me of that one movie we saw the other day, the one that made me fall asleep.”

“I remember.”

“Well, from what I acquired, his name was Finn, which is odd, considering the name originated in Ireland. But anyways, he’s carrying around this huge cage with an armadillo inside.”

“Armadillo? Don’t those usually originate in-“

“South and Central America, particularly Paraguay.”

“Weird.”

“No, no. That’s not the weird part.”

“The suspense.”

“I promise you. You are going to want to hear this. It turns out, Finn who is not Irish, just contracted leprosy.”

“Like, Old Testament leprosy?”

“Yes. That would be the one.”

“Gee, why does all the fun stuff happen to you? All I get is apartment hunting and the brainstorming of band names for the girl group we’re forming in the near future.” I fiddled with the straw on my water cup absentmindely.

“Any winners?”

“Picture this. I want you to close your eyes and imagine it. Are your eyes closed? Is your environment stable enough for the information I’m about to share with you?”

“As stable as it can be above a twenty story building.”

I smiled, maintaining the most serious voice possible. “Mother Nature…Piss.”

Dexter scoffed on the other end. I could tell he was currently smirking and rubbing the nape of his neck. After a pause, “Annie thought of that one, didn’t she?”

I shook my head, smiling widely. “Partly, but the discovery of its brilliance was one of yours truly.”

“Do I know how to pick them, or what?” He spoke sarcastically.

I smirked, shrugging lightly, “You got lucky, I guess.”

“My break’s over.” Dexter laughed, “I’ll talk to you later?”

I nodded, grinning widely, “Alright. Stay away from Finn the leper.”

“It will take quite a bit of restraint, but I’ll manage.” Dexter scoffed before hanging up the phone.

As I placed my phone back onto the table and took another sip of the straw in my water cup, Nicole’s voice erupted loudly from in front of me.

“What kind of a conversation was that? Please tell me that wasn’t Dexter?” She said.

I shrugged, grinning lightly. “It was. It was Dexter.”

“You haven’t seen the least of it, you should watch them play board games.” Annie spoke monotonously from beside me, eyes fixated on a menu she asked permission from the waitress to keep in case she wanted to order anything else. “Anyone want to share the Moussaka with eggplant?”

---

"Ah, shit." I muttered under my breath as I watched my disposable coffee cup fall to the black, street pavement in front of Dexter’s apartment.

I rolled my eyes and shut the car door of my red pick-up truck before bending down to pick up the Styrofoam cup which was now void of any drinkable substance. I bit my lip and watched sorrowfully as the mocha liquids seeped into the asphalt, flooding around the soles of my black boots and combining with the dirty rain water from the previous showers. I shook my head and pushed stands of hair out of my face before striding over to the nearby trashcan on the sidewalk and pouting as I tossed my empty cup inside, silently saying a few words out of respect for the perfect cup of coffee I had just lost.

After apartment hunting, I dropped Annie and Nicole off at the record store because Annie offered to show Nicole a few bands she knew were more her style. Annie had a high affinity for that, pinpointing the music taste of others. She introduced me to at least 10 amazing new alternative bands since I’d known her. I didn’t expect her to be so musically inclined, but I suppose that she, like her brother, was also full of secrets.

I adjusted my scarf and shoved my car keys into my sack of a purse before making my way inside the brick building, up to Dexter's apartment. After jogging up the stairs fairly quickly, I rounded the corner and heard bickering radiating from door 20F, Dexter's door. I easily distinguished Dexter’s voice, which was raised to quite an angry tone. And another voice jumped in, a male voice. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t be sure. I walked so that I was now in front of the door, about to knock. But my attempt was officially thwarted once the door swung open, revealing Dexter’s older brother, Ben. His expression automatically softened once his eyes landed on my face. I took a moment to examine his appearance. He looked like he’d spent more time than one usually would in the pouring rain, like he’d been standing in it without anything to cover him. His hair was dripping wet and his coat clung to his wet t-shirt. His age difference between him and his brother was more prevalent considering his tired eyes and defeated expression. His lips pulled into a tight, forced smile before he began moving past me and jogging down the flights of stairs. I watched him disappear before making my way into the apartment, immediately spotting Dexter stumbling out of his room, pulling a shirt over his chiseled abdomen.

“What was all that about?” I furrowed my eyebrows in concern, closing the front door.

He shrugged, “Just a little sibling scuffle. Nothing to worry about.”

I licked over my lips, nodding slightly as I watched him make his way into the kitchen. I knew there was something he wasn’t telling me. But, it wasn’t my place to pry, especially in family matters. I brushed it off, figuring it wasn’t too bad of a dispute, probably just an argument between brothers. They were pretty close, and often resolved disputes on their own; and they had quite a few of those. I put my bag onto the table and plopped down onto the couch, taking off my boots before pulling my feet onto the couch.

“What movie did you want to watch?” Dexter said, plopping down next to me on the couch and tossing me a bag of sour patch kids onto my lap and placing a bowl of popcorn on his other side as he wrapped his arm on the back of the couch.
I bit my lip, trying to hold a smile as I turned to face him. He always did things like this, spontaneous gifts that he never acknowledged. He knew sour patch kids was my favorite candy, and he gave it to me for no apparent reason, without expecting any acknowledgement. I’ve never been the type to gush over a bouquet of roses or jewelry because, in my opinion, it was always a way for guys to fish for rewards or praise. And really, flowers and jewelry did me no good. Sour patch kids, however, have always held the key to my heart. Well, food in general. But, it wasn’t the fact that he gave me candy that made me love the gesture. It was the fact that he expected no praise or gift in return, he did it so nonchalantly, like it was a casual thing that he should be doing regardless. That, is one of the reasons that I love him.

“You pick this time.” I shrugged, opening the bag and popping a red sour patch kid into my mouth. “I think you’d squirm a little too much if I picked.”

“It depends what you want to watch.” He smirked, pulling his cardboard box full of movies out from under to coffee table.

I cleared my throat, grinning widely. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”

“’The Flying Swords of Dragon Gate’ it is!” He laughed, shaking his head as he glared at me. “Your love for horror movies really hurts my Alpha dog rep sometimes, you know?”

“I’ll vouch for you if anyone comments on it,” I laughed, furrowing my eyebrows to mock seriousness before kissing him on the cheek.

He nodded, throwing his hands into the air in defeat. “Thank you. Thanks for that.”

---

“I just don’t get it.” I shook my head, gesturing towards the screen as my head rested on his lap. “A person of your intellect should be intrigued by documentaries, not Jet Li movies. Not that I have anything against Kung Fu movies or anything.”

“I’m a guy.” He shrugged, gently pushing strands of hair away from my face as the ending credits rolled on screen. “And come on, it’s Jet Li.”

I nodded, rolling onto my back and popping another candy into my mouth. “Thank you, for the candy, I mean.”

He grinned, shaking his head as his eyes looked down to meet mine. “Don’t analyze the gesture too much, someone might mistake you for a chick.” He joked.

“Which is still a degrading term, by the way!” I smacked his arm, smirking as he feigned injury.

I sat up from the couch and grabbed the empty bowl of popcorn off the couch, making my way towards the kitchen and putting the bowl into the sink. I looked around the kitchen and smiled at the fresh pot of coffee. He must have made it after I told him I was on my way, before Ben arrived. I knew that Dexter didn’t drink coffee unless it was in the morning, he wasn’t a caffeine freak like me. I silently praised him before fixing myself a steaming cup. I made my way back to the couch and saw that Dexter was now reading a book I lent to him a few days ago, my favorite book, ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ by Garth Stein. It wasn’t like the non-fiction material he usually veered towards, the book I gave him was a novel, a fictional novel. I was surprised that he actually took the time to read it, that he was close to finishing it, even.

I placed my mug onto the table before jumping onto the couch abruptly and straddling his lap. “What are you doing?” I asked, pushing his buttons. He hated being interrupted when reading something, but how was a guy going to object when his girlfriend was straddling his lap like this?

He lowered the novel, exposing his confused expression before placing the book on the couch beside him. “I was….reading, before this unkind interruption.” He smirked, shaking his head.

I raised an eyebrow, “Okay. Well, if you don’t want me to sit here then…” I grinned lightly as I moved off of the couch, spinning around to grab my coffee off the table, slowly bending over to tease him.

He let out a groan from the back of his throat from behind me as I heard him stand up from the couch. I raised my eyebrows, moving to face him but was immediately stopped when he gripped my waist and threw me over his shoulders, running towards his bedroom like a running back sprinting towards the end line of a football field, hoping to score.